Based on Richard Matheson's novel The Shrinking Man and directed by cult sci-fi and horror guru Jack Arnold of It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Tarantula fame, The Incredible Shrinking Man is considered one of science fiction's best films. Its strengths, however, lurk more in the horrific implications it presents than its science fiction.(read more...)

Did you know that Classic-Horror.com is on Facebook, Livejournal, and MySpace? Did you also know that your humble Editor-in-Creep has a Twitter account, from which he continues to feed the demons of his attention deficit disorder? Well, you do now! We've established presences on these four social networking sites to keep in contact with our fans. Read on to discover where to find us.(read more...)

Never have I seen a small town setting work for a movie as well as Perfection, Nevada works for Tremors. Sure, the actors are top-notch and the right choice for their characters, the effects are convincing, and the script is ripe with sarcasm and wit, but the setting is what ties all of these elements together. Perfection is an ex-mining town of 14 residents; if it truly existed, it would be on a map just so vacationers could drive through it and count all the people.(read more...)

When one weird crossover between English author Jane Austen and the horror genre is announced, it's amusing. When two are in the offing, you start to take notice. Word has been going around for the past couple months about Seth Grahame-Smith's novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which hits bookshelves on May 13, 2009. The book rewrites parts of Austen's literary classic Pride and Prejudice to include the walking dead. As the official press release puts it:(read more...)

After the massive success of Horror of Dracula in 1958, Hammer Films was keen on making a sequel - even when Christopher Lee was not set to return to the role of Count Dracula. Nonetheless, filming began on a sequel that carried on without Dracula and surprisingly became one of the best sequels in the entire Hammer horror cannon. Ladies and gentlemen - I present Terence Fisher's The Brides of Dracula.(read more...)

For the past seven years, the only way to see new material from John Carpenter was to tune in to the Showtime series Masters of Horror and its NBC spin-off Fear Itself. The last time the legendary Halloween director had his name over the title of a theatrical release was 2001's Ghosts of Mars. That's about to change now, as a number of online sources like The Hollywood Reporter and ShockTillYouDrop.com bring the good news that Carpenter has signed on to direct actress Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) in The Ward.(read more...)

The walking dead have long been used as a way for writers and directors to make comments on contemporary society and culture, from Hammer's Plague of the Zombies (1966), with the exploited undead being forced to work the tin mines, to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), where people rise from their graves – and head straight for the shopping mall. Dead Set, a five-episode television series that aired over consecutive nights on British satellite channel E4, uses its zombies to explore the reality television phenomenon. However, rather than doing this through clunky heavy-handed dialogue, the satirical elements are contained in some rather more subtle symbolism.(read more...)

As an avid follower of author/actor Wil Wheaton's blog for the past several years, I've read all about his interest in science fiction, gaming, comic books, and other geeky pursuits. But until a casual conversation I had with him at Phoenix Comicon this year, I had no idea that he was also a fellow horror fan. Later that day, Wil graciously took a few minutes of his time to talk with me about his love of horror and some of his favorite films in the genre.(read more...)

Apparently I know nothing of what a convention panel is supposed to look like. I'd always thought of them as marketing tools -- years of attending San Diego Comic-Con will do that. At Phoenix Comicon, however, the panels were more esoteric, devoted to actually fan discussion mixed with nostalgia. There were three panels devoted to horror movies -- one general horror panel, one on horror classics, and one (ostensibly) about horror comedy. I had the honor and joy of being asked to participate in the latter two.